His Match
by GingerCrunchToffee
Summary: Tony Stark is unbeatable, nobody could match his... anything, or so he thought. Then, with a clatter and curse, Italia stumbles into his life. Tony/OC. Read 'Pens' for a better idea XD
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! So sorry this took so long, I don't know what happened, but I did lose half of my first attempt. I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who favourited and reviewed, you guys are awesome and also, on my profile I shall put up links to pictures of my characters and other important stuff for you. Anyways, Review!**

**Prologue **

"Italia, how did you know the answer to Daddy's equation?" A scruffy man asked, his eyes squinting in caution. The little girl in front of him shrugged innocently, her fingers fiddling with the Rubix cube.

"I dunno, it just, sorta… I dunno," she replied, a small frown encasing her soft features.

"That's alright, sweetie, here, I want you to have this bracelet, guard it with your life," her father replied with a smile. Italia nodded, the frown disappearing as she accepted the metallic bracelet from her father.

"Thanks, Daddy."

**Chapter 1**

The dim light in the old apartment cast a looming shadow of the small figure facing the desk, absentmindedly fiddling with a plain silver bracelet as she looked over the blueprint for her latest clean weapon. Music played quietly in the background, blotching out the sound of reality in the street below her.

Italia jerked at the light knock on her door, her heart rate spiking. She rushed over, checking through the peep hole to identify the stranger. Her nose crinkled as she tried to figure out if she'd seen this man before. He didn't look that dangerous, but he could have other people off to the side.

As she pulled open the door, her other hand slid into her back pocket, beside her sheathed knife, easily concealed by the oversized hoodie the covered her top half.

"Yo," Italia greeted, her eyes dancing behind him to scan for anyone else.

"Italia Gage?" The man on the other side of the door asked.

"If I wasn't you wouldn't be here, therefore I must be, unless there is someone else in the apartment, which there isn't so you have the right house. Just give me a sample of the drugs and you can be off," Italia replied quickly, her hip tilting to the side slightly.

The man in the black suit chuckled slightly, his hand going into his jacket. Italia's eyes followed his hand closely, her heart picking up again and her pocketed hand subtly moved over half an inch to grip the blades handle with white knuckles.

Her hand relaxed slightly once she realised her was pulling out a badge. "Agent Coulson of SHEILD, I'm afraid we need your assistance."

As Italia listened to Coulson's quick explanation of the mess they'd somehow managed to drag the planet into her mind was sprinting in circles. She wasn't sure what his angle was, did he need her to fight? Did he want her skill or the bracelet that clung to her thin wrist?

"I'm afraid I can't go into more detail until you agree to help us and we are in a secured area, but I'm being honest with you, Miss Gage, we need your help," Coulson ended his small story, his eyes sincere.

Tessie stood up, heading over to her desk and slowly packing up her laptop and other important gadgets. All her senses were strained to hear what Coulson was doing behind her. It went against all instincts to turn her back to a stranger, to most people, actually.

Finally she turned around again, gave Coulson a firm nod and ordered him not to move. As she grabbed a duffel bag and shoved in essential items her thoughts tangled and fought. It could be a trap, she could be killed and the bracelet could be taken. But nobody knew that what they were looking for was a bracelet. Not that it made any difference, they'd still take everything anyway.

Shaking her worries from her mind, she zipped up the duffel bag, glanced around at her room and strode back into the living room. Neither of them said a word as Italia grabbed her other bags and followed Coulson from the apartment.

It was dark outside, and the few who were still awake were lurking in the shadows, waiting for someone vulnerable to come along. The pair clambered into a tinted SUV and sped off, rushing through the streets until they reached a traffic jam.

"So what's the threat that could change humanity and destroy the world?" Italia asked Coulson, folding her legs neatly underneath her.

"His name is Loki, he's a-"

"Norse god, yep, heard of him, Thor is his brother," Italia interrupted with a nod.

"Well, Loki stole something called the Tesseract, with that he could take over this planet, and many others, universes, even," Coulson continued.

"So why do you need me? Don't you have assassins to deal with this crap?" Italia asked.

"It's more complicated than that, we have to find and secure him before we figure out what to do with him," Coulson explained.

"But where do I come in with this?" Italia pressed.

"We need you to help take him down, we have a few other people coming in to assist, but we feel that it might be handy to have someone of your… expertise, out with them," Coulson responded, his eyes never leaving Italia's face.

She was silent, approving of his answer. It made sense to have a technician on hand, especially Italia's kind of technician.

Nothing more was said as they drove, heading directly to wherever they were going, unknown to Italia, but obvious to Coulson. Italia couldn't help but wonder what mess she'd managed to drag herself into.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! This is earlier than I was originally gonna post but I wanted to sync it with a story I'm writing on a different site. Reviews are much appreciated! Big thank you to ****_JJCME _****who was the first and so far the only one to review! **

**I don't own anything that you recognise, except for Italia and her little… creations XD**

Never in Italia's life had she seen three more mismatched people in the same room. The redheaded agent, Romanoff, looked like she was about to start handing out ass kicking's like cookies to blood donors. Captain America, (or, as Italia had affectionately named him, sparkles, to which, after realising wasn't an insult, blushed and looked away) looked so out of place amongst the high technology and efficient agents. Bruce Banner was out of place in a different sense, he looked like he'd spent the last week on a crocodile farm, he was more aware of the tech in the room but seemed detached, out of it, even.

Italia herself looked both out of place and completely at home on the bridge, she could name and easily work every single device in sight, and could probably hand out a few ass kicking's of her own, but she was too casual to match up to Romanoff's stiff stature and the Captain's attentive responses to Fury's orders. Of course she was too at ease with her surroundings, too aware to drift on the same wavelength as the doctor. But Italia highly doubted anyone was on his wavelength.

Even so, Italia had heard many things about this doctor, although nothing that particularly interested her line of work. "Doctor Banner, pleasure to meet you," Italia smiled, making the doctor float back to earth and accept her offered hand.

"And you are…?" He asked quietly, a polite smile gracing his features.

"I'm just another face in this mess," Italia replied evasively.

"If you were just another you wouldn't have approached me, or even acknowledged my existence," Doctor Banner replied with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I don't work well with uniforms, tell me you didn't come because of your… little problem?" Italia instead pleaded. If they'd bought in the only green monster not associated with jealousy to take whoever this guy was she would not be happy. They'd make more damage with him than without him.

Banner laughed quietly. "No, apparently not, I'm just here to locate the cube," he reassured her. Italia nodded, their conversation ending when someone announced they had a hit.

"You're up, Captain," Fury decided as the mismatching group dispersed. "You'd better tag along as well, Italia, we might need maintenance after this," Fury added before turning his back to her. With a shrug Italia followed Romanoff out to the tarmac.

Italia watched on quietly as this Loki character rounded up the scattering guests like sheep. It annoyed her to no end, watching on as these people were forced to bow down. All but one. A man stood tall, his wrinkles forming a prominent frown.

Italia watched on in rising anger as Loki raised his staff, she was so wrapped up she didn't notice the Captain leap from the back of plain, just in time to land in front of the old man, his shield rebounding the electric blue bolt, knocking Loki off his feet.

A few words were shared before the fight broke out, and while Natasha tried to navigate in closer, Italia rummaged through her bag, searching for the one thing she'd ever made that even closely resembled a shield. She knew what the easiest way to get him was.

Along with her shield she grabbed her throwing knifes, hoping that would be enough to help her sorry ass. They were low enough to the ground that Italia could leap without too much damage, considering they were hovering about a flower bed. With a last glance back, Italia leapt, twisting so she would land on her shoulder.

With a heavy grunt, she landed in the damp soil. Standing up and dusting herself off, Italia turned to face the tousling men several metres from where she was standing. With an eye roll and a deep breath, Italia called out.

"Hey, Santa's little helper!" She called out. Both men stopped to look up at her and with a smirk, she flung a knife at Loki's head. As expected, he sent a bolt her way. She opened up the metal umbrella, angling it so it would bounce directly back to him and braced herself for the brunt of it.

The bolt hit her with more force than expected and she tumbled back off the garden, but not before the bolt had time to ricochet of the umbrella, hitting Loki square on the chest, narrowly missing the Captain. The demigod flew backwards, crashing into a power line, which cracked under the force. Italia shuddered at the thought of what that would have done to her.

While she tried to sneak about to get into a decent position to try again, the other two continued to fight, oblivious to Italia's scampering. Finally, she found the perfect position. "So what's your name again? I only ever remember you as Thor's brother," Italia called out innocently, gripping the umbrella and tensing all her muscles. This time she didn't need to raise a finger as a stream of blue charged at her.

This one had more force behind it, more anger and took Italia back a few feet, slamming into the uneven brick behind her. With a grunt, she slumped to the ground and didn't try to get up. Instead she watched on as the Captain take the upper hand for a few moves, until Loki had him on the ground. Italia's heart was pounding, they weren't even an hour into the fight and Loki was already taking them out like dominoes.

It was then, in that moment of slight terror that she heard it. A heavy guitar beat flooding through the speakers of SHIELD's issued jet. As the first lyrics started to poor from the speakers, the other two heard it as well, both heads snapping up at the sound, right flashes of blue blasted Loki away from the Captain. Italia could have laughed as the familiar suit of red and gold landed beside the Captain who had just scrambled to his feet.

"Make a move, reindeer games," the voice of Tony Stark spoke, revealing several small missiles and his plasma bolts. With a vague smirk, Loki raised his hands and his armour dissipated. Tony Stark retracted his missiles and relaxed slightly. "Good move."

As Italia began to haul herself up from her uncomfortable position she heard the Captain speak up, panting from the battle. "Mr Stark," he greeted.

"Captain," Stark returned with an incline of the head. An echoing clatter brought their attention to Italia who had tossed the umbrella to the side as, with a small grunt she picked up the single knife she'd tossed at the now unarmed Loki.

She was cursing quietly under her breath and was hobbling slightly due to the forming bumps and bruises on her back. "That's gonna hurt tomorrow," she winced as she reached the other two who were staring at her.

"What sort of umbrella deflects blue bolts like that?" The Captain asked and Italia responded with a crooked grin.

"My kind of umbrella."


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello! This one is later than it was supposed to be, but it's here! Review please XD**

**I don't own anything.**

The plane zipped through the sky silently, the Captain and Stark standing at the entrance to cockpit and talking quietly. Italia was sitting across from the strapped in Loki, her leaning against the wall behind her as she listened carefully to what the other two were talking about. Loki was staring at her intently, his eyes glittering curiously. He hadn't expected them to bring in a stranger, but she was smart. She was different to the others.

Loki decided that he would take this opportunity to delve into her emotions and subconscious thoughts, figure out just why she was different, and why she was here. She didn't seem to have any extra strength or stealth, so she shouldn't have been out fighting with the soldier, he'd gathered she hadn't asked permission before leaping out of the plain to his aide by the look the redhead had given her.

She was arrogant, and stubborn, and didn't seem to listen to others very often, in that sense she was like the man of iron, but there was something else to it. It frustrated Loki that he couldn't figure it out. Her aura was off; it wasn't like the other human's on board.

Tony Stark had missed majority of the fight that went on in Stuttgart so he couldn't understand why the girl winced every time she moved and had muttered equations that sounded oddly similar to his type of equations when she'd inspected the damage done to the umbrella. If Tony hadn't been aware of his lack of helmet and her set of engraved throwing knifes he would have cracked a joke about it. He decided he would look up on her once he cracked the SHIELD files.

Steve Rogers was still aching slightly from the battle and he was frustrated he'd needed help from two different people to take down one guy. Especially seeing as one of those people hadn't even really meant to have been fighting. It wasn't like him to be ungrateful, and if it hadn't been Stark he would have been. But he still harboured feelings from the fondue incident. Even so, Steve told himself to buck up and make sure he thanked the dame – no, the _woman _whose name he'd remembered to be Italia.

A loud growling ripped through the air, interrupting everybody's thoughts. Italia leapt up and = Loki's head snapped to the door, which Steve noticed. "Afraid of a little lightning?" He asked the demigod, who glanced over at Steve. Italia sat back down quickly, trying to play off her reaction.

"It's what comes after that I'm not particularly fond of," Loki replied, right before a loud thud sounded above the group's heads. Tony grabbed his mask, Steve grabbed his shield and Italia made for her knifes.

"What was that?" Romanoff called from the pilot's seat. Stark pressed a button and the back of the jet lowered. With another clunk a mass of red, silver and blonde landed on the ramp, a storm raging outside the jet.

Tony made to shoot at him but the intruder tossed a hammer, which Italia recognised to be Mjolnir, at him. It hit his armour square in the chest and he was knocked down. Nobody else tried to fend him off as he grabbed Loki and leapt back out the jet.

Tony was up on his feet again and strolling towards the door. "Stark, we need a plan!" Steve exclaimed, shoving on his mask as he went.

"I have a plan; attack," Tony replied before leaping from the jet in pursuit. The captain grabbed a parachute, and quickly followed, ignoring Natasha's warnings.

Natasha, who was in no mood to be ignored, turned to Italia with a sharp warning glare and low, "don't you dare."

Italia rolled her eyes and reached over to close the back of the jet so Natasha could swing around and track down the skydivers.

When everyone returned to the jet, Thor included, Italia was surprised to see Loki amongst them. After the fight she'd just witnessed with Natasha, she had have expected them to come in like the kittens who lost their mittens.

The ride back was silent, Italia couldn't figure out why Loki hadn't disappeared when the chance arose, Steve, Tony and Thor were mulling over the fight, while Natasha was navigating to the helicarrier.

There wasn't much to be said, most were slightly drained from the night's events and simply wanted a shower. Or at least Italia did.

When they arrived back on the bridge, everybody went their own ways, Steve, Natasha and Thor to secure Loki before reporting to Fury, Tony to dispose of his supercharged suit and Italia to change into her previous clothes after a hot shower. Then she might pop in to see what was happening.

After her steaming shower, Italia was feeling better, and didn't have dirt in uncomfortable places. She had a few angry bruises and scrapes on her back and face to go along with that awful scar but other than that she came out unscathed. Her umbrella came off far worse, however, and she would need to fix that before anything else happened.

With those thoughts on her mind, she left the room she'd been assigned to and headed off to the bridge. As predicted, they were all there, minus Fury and Tony. They were all talking and none of them had noticed Italia's arrival.

"… You can smell crazy on the guy," Italia arrived in time to hear Bruce say.

"Be mindful of your words, Loki is still my brother," Thor warned, his deep voice bouncing off the walls.

"He killed over 80 people in two days," Natasha deadpanned.

"He's adopted," Thor amended and Italia snorted, alerting people to her presence. Everyone turned to look at her. Shoving her hands in her back pockets Italia smiled at all of them, for once not an egotistical smirk or a playful grin, an actual smile, one that appears maybe once a month.

"What did I miss?" Italia asked, flouncing over to Bruce's side.

"Not much, an ant and boot metaphor and some jibes at Tony," Bruce replied with a casual shrug. Italia grinned, resting her elbow on Bruce's shoulder, which was several inches higher than hers. Italia, deciding that there was nothing more important to do here, so she flounced back out of the room, intent of fixing and improving that umbrella.

**Hope you guys liked that, don't forget, review, anything from suggestions to praise, so long as it isn't cruel. And tell your friends!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey hey hey! Lots of Tony in this one. Thought you should know. Sorry this one took so long, it's been really busy lately, I've been devoting a lot of my spare time to my guitar and homework, plus some other stuff. So from now on I'll update once a week, and hopefully it'll mean that the chapters come out more edited. I also want to inform you that I don't really know what I'm talking about when it comes to science and metal umbrellas. Please just pretend like I do, and that it sounds like it. Thanks and review!**

**I don't anything, in fact, I don't even own the bed I sleep in, okay?**

"If I max out the energy supplements and lower the rubber density… It should heighten the defence and make it less prone to lapsing…" Italia muttered under her breath, adjusting percentages on the glass screen in front of her.

"Just out of curiosity, what metal are you using?" A smooth voice asked. Italia's head snapped up, her holly eyes wide, glittering in the light. Her hair was in a messy bun, keeping it out of her way. She was wearing worn shorts and an oversized hoodie that could be a dress. Littering her legs were an assortment of scars and a burn that splashed across her knee and lower thigh, wrapping thin fingers around her knee joint.

Tony, who was leaning casually against the steel doorframe, had inspected this before he spoke, and now his eyes never left hers, although her burn was leaving an equally obvious curiosity consuming his mind.

"Something that you won't have heard of," Italia replied slowly, cautiously. Tony smirked, pushing off the wall and heading over, adjusting the percentage bar that had been changed when Italia's attention had been drawn to him.

Italia huffed and adjusted it again; half a percentage.

"Believe me, I know a lot about metal. You might be surprised," Tony responded after picking up the umbrella and twirling it around like a show girl.

Italia smirked. "I call it Unchartered. Now tell me, have you heard of it?" Italia asked, her smirk growing at Tony's expression.

"You said, quote unquote, I call it. What is it really called?" Tony asked and Italia rolled her eyes.

"It's technical term is Flow 2.367 and 8. But you won't have heard of that either," Italia replied, turning back to her screen.

"Ah, I see, you're the engineer Fury mentioned," Tony claimed, although he knew from her lack of presence at the show down with the demigod that she wasn't there to fight. He simply assumed she had something they wanted that, for once, they couldn't get their hands on privately.

Italia, who also knew that Tony already knew simply shook her head, going over her finalized details.

"I'm going to point out now that if the adjustments you're making on the computer are Flow related, SHIELD will have already stored it and began manufacturing," Tony announced, peering over Italia's shoulder at what she was doing.

"It's not. I don't have access to the needed materials for that, this is a coating that I'm adding to the umbrella to help make it stronger, because I get the feeling this isn't even close to being over," Italia replied with a shrug. She could feel Tony's warm breath against her neck and it sent spiders scattering over her spine. She fought the urge to shiver in the warm room.

"And how do you expect to make that without liquefied rubber and undiluted… toxins," Tony finished his sentence vaguely as Italia had shooed him away and out of her personal space before he could read what other ingredients and materials she needed.

"Those, however, I have access to, and a way to make them," Italia replied before pressing another button and strolling from the room.

As it turned out, when Italia approached Fury about means to repair her umbrella and have a work space, he simply told her that they had everything she could possibly need for repairs, and the means to manufacture it. This included a machine that would liquefy and blend her materials, so she didn't have to do it by hand. Tony and Italia watched on while the machine worked it's magic. Neither were really interested in it, it wasn't something they weren't familiar with, but neither had anything better to do. Eventually, Tony left, Italia had devoted her attention to the new liquid and Tony wasn't happy about being ignored. Italia, who figured that would happen, smiled to herself as Tony huffed and strolled from the lab she was using.

Grabbing a brush and her injured umbrella, Italia began coating the now mended metal with the substance, hoping that it would hold it up until she could get in some actual repairs to the metal itself. She welded the stokes on the underside before applying the coating and estimated it would hold up against several weak bolts of the substance Loki was shooting at her, but one severe one, like the that was the cause of the bruising scattered across her back and it would break under the pressure. Italia sighed, storing the remainder of the liquid in her backpack, which contained several other vital work items she'd grabbed before leaving her apartment.

She stopped off at the room she had be allocated and dumped her bag in there before heading in search of the doctor. She got along with him the best, even though she'd spoken to all of them for about two minutes each.

Once she located his lab, which wasn't far from the one she had been using, Steve and Tony were already there. Bruce noticed her first, before the other two acknowledged her presence. They were talking about Fury.

"Captain, he's a spy. He isthe spy, his secrets have secrets," Tony explained, dropping a handful of blueberries into his mouth. "It's bugging him too, isn't it?" Tony continued, turning to face Bruce.

"Ah…" Bruce trailed off, at a loss for words. "I just wanna finish my work here," but before he could finish his sentence, the now wary Steve interrupted.

"Doctor?" He asked, hoping for an opinion he could genuinely take to heart.

Bruce paused his fiddling, but now Italia was leaning against the bench, curious as the other's opinion of the guy. Although she agreed with Tony, she decided to stay quiet. "A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube," Bruce began.

"I heard it," Steve prompted.

"Well I think that was meant for you," Bruce announced, turning to Tony. In return, Tony offered him some blueberries. "Even if Barton didn't tell loki about the tower, it was still all over the news," He added.

"Stark tower? That big ugly –" Steve began but cut off at the look Tony gave him and the warning tap from Italia. "Building in New York?" Steve finished.

"It's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source," Bruce paused, looking up at Tony to confirm, who nodded. "It will run itself for what? A year?" Bruce asked.

Tony shrugged. "It's just a prototype."

"Judging by the size of the building and the usage percentage compared to the reactor you're using, it'll last about 18 months, but if you adjusted it, it could double and would make maintaining it twice as easy," Italia interrupted at that point, deciding that she wanted to involve herself in the conversation.

"And how would you know that?" Tony asked her with a small smirk.

"I know about everything that involves my work or my interests," Italia replied, her own smirk playing on her lips.

"Oh, and I interest you do I?" He asked, tilting his head to the side, his smirk now very much there.

Italia didn't bother responding, instead she turned to Steve and explained, "Tony here is pretty much the only name in the clean energy business."

"That's what he's getting at," Tony added.

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce asked Steve. "I mean, what are they doing in the energy business In the first place?" He concluded.

"I should probably look into that," Tony mused, going around behind Bruce as he spoke. "As soon as my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files," Tony added, pulling out his phone as he came to stand beside Italia.

She peered at his phone, glancing over the progress bars.

"I'm sorry, did you say that-" but before Steve could finish, Tony cut in.

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge," Tony explained. "In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?" Tony offered. Italia reached over Tony's shoulder, still playing on their flirting from before and snagged two from the packet, smirking at Tony's expression,

"Yet you're confused as to why they didn't want you around?" Steve asked with raised eyebrows.

"An intelligence organisation that fears intelligence, that's just historically not awesome," Tony countered.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up, this is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused, he could succeed," Steve declared, not liking the direction the conversation was going. "We have orders, we should follow them," he added, looking pointedly at the other three, although Italia had remained virtually silent during the conversation.

"I don't follow orders, I act on my own," Italia threw in, deciding that if he was going to include her, she would participate.

"Following isn't really my style," Tony added in with a small shrug.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve shot back. Tony looked at Italia and Bruce before replying.

"Put of the people in this room which one is a, wearing a spangley outfit and b, not of use?" Tony asked. Steve's cheeks tinted a ghost of pink, which Tony didn't even notice.

"Steve," Italia interrupted, feeling slightly bad for the soldier. "Tell me none of this smells a little funky to you."

Everyone looked at Steve, awaiting his answer. "Just find the cube," he sighed before leaving the lab.

**I loved writing this. Some tension between Tony and Steve and Tony and Italia, although two completely different kinds of tension ;) thanks for reading and don't forget to review**!


	5. Chapter 5

**I feel that I should bring in some more Italia if you know what I mean. This is gonna, like, be completely off story topic thing, y'know. Well, most of it will be. Review please!**

**Even if I did own anyone, I would give them a dirty sock and tell them to be free, because you can't tame guys like them. **

The last thing Italia ever thought she would find on that godforsaken helicarrier was a drum kit. When she first passed the glass door, all she saw was the crash symbol, but upon walking backwards to confirm that she wasn't seeing things, and there was a crash symbol on the boat, she saw the rest of the kit as well.

Glancing around quickly, Tessie slipped into the room. The drum kit was white with black rims. Italia breathed in the smell before plopping down on the seat and picking up the sticks. Spinning her right hand, she broke into a beat, repeating the same fast pattern over and over.

The beat flowed through her, her heart beating in time with the sticks. She stopped thinking and just played. Nothing had ever been as therapeutic for Italia and she saw it as a miracle that someone would set up a kit on frigging boat.

A loud crash echoed through the room and Italia stopped abruptly, her head snapping up. Fury grabbed the shaking ride symbol before speaking. "I'm glad you found the kit. Another agent uses it to vent as well."

"That's nice, what do you need me for?" Italia asked, her mind flashing back to the conversation she'd listened to.

"I have a job for you."

**XXXX**

"Interesting that they bring you in on this," Loki mused, his back facing Italia. When Fury had approached her about speaking to Loki, she'd done a quick wardrobe change, because she didn't want to look like an average girl in front of a demigod before heading down to the holding cell.

"Well, I don't know about interesting," Italia replied with a shrug.

"So tell me, why is it that you're here?" Loki asked Italia, turning around a smiling at her.

"Well, Nick asked me if I would come and say hi, because you –"

"I mean here, on this craft," Loki interrupted her.

"I'm the engineer, plus I happen to know how to make a small cannon gun out of a hairdryer," Italia replied as innocently as she could.

"But that's not all, why are you really here? What do you have that they need?" Loki pressed. Italia actually paused to think about it, but only came up with the metal.

"They don't have my undeniable charm and witty comments," Italia tried and Loki shook his head. "But why are you here? Why didn't you disappear when you had the chance?"

"I have nowhere better to be for the moment, and it's fun watching a group of lost people trying to find a dynamic in which they can work as a team," Loki replied, his smirk growing.

"Aw, that's cute bullshit," Italia cooed, her head tilting to the side.

"Who gave you the bracelet?" Loki changed the subject.

"My father, he made it," Italia replied without batting an eyelash.

"What's so special about it?"

"There's nothing special about it."

"Ah, so he didn't tell you what power it possessed."

Italia didn't answer straight away as she considered his words. How did he know that it was, in some way, important to the government, and it wasn't even her home country.

"Power is irrelevant if no one can use it. I don't lose sleep over something that isn't supposed to be used," Italia replied stonily.

"Yes, then you understand why I have taken the Tesseract," Loki nodded. Italia snorted, her hand flying to her mouth.

"No, I don't understand and to be honest, I don't want to understand. Everybody has a monster inside them, yours just seems to be more dominant than others'," Italia retorted.

"I'm not the monster on this ship," Loki countered easily.

"Bruce isn't a monster, the other guy saved his life, but your monster will only ruin you," Italia replied, standing up to leave, she had what she needed.

Loki stepped toward the glass, pushing his hand firmly against the glass. Italia's right hand jerked backwards, pulling her body towards the glass at an alarming speed. Like a magnet, the bracelet her father gave her, clung to the glass, trying to get to Loki's hand, but as soon as Italia began to feel the pain, the bracelet lost connection and her hand slid to the ground to join the rest of her body.

She jumped up, smiled at Loki and left the room, her mind spinning and spitting at what just happened.

**XXXX**

_"Dad, what is this bracelet for?" Italia asked her father, inspecting the bracelet clasped around her wrist._

_"I designed it a long time ago, and I gave it to you just after I'd finished it. I trust that you will find out when the time is right, but only after my time is up," he replied, grasping her hand with his larger one._

_"You mean when you die?" Italia questioned her father, eyebrows wrinkling._

_"Yes, Italia, when I die. You'll inherit something that will explain to you what the bracelet is, what it does. If I happen to die before you're 18, don't go looking for it until after. You need to be ready for the power the knowledge brings," He amended, pulling his only daughter into a hug, a single tear leaking from his dark brown eyes__**.**_

Italia was frozen to the spot as the memory washed over her. Her father was still alive, but he'd moved back to their home country. She raised her wrist up and inspected the bracelet for the millionth time. How did Loki know about its power if she didn't even know?

Before she could say anything else, she saw the captain lugging a large weapon down the hall. Putting her bracelet into the back of her mind, she followed the captain at a slow, cautious pace.

What was he doing?

**I know. This is short. I'm sorry, it was supposed to be longer, but I was busy, so, y'know. But the next chapter is gonna be pretty intense. Review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't anything, just thought you should know.**

It seemed that everyone was in the lab. Everyone that mattered anyway. When Italia strode in nobody even noticed. They were all wrapped up in their own arguments. Italia noticed the weapon Steve was carrying and, ignoring the chaos around her, wandered over to the contraption and picked up. She inspected it curiously, but dropped it when she received a shock. It ran up her arm and squeezed her heart. The loud breath that escaped her and the clunk the weapon made when it hit the ground drew everyone's attention to her, Fury, Steve and Romanoff were glaring daggers at her.

"What? Are you going point out all of my little faults too? Tell me I'm useless?" She demanded, idly listening to their bickering had gotten on her nerves and three sets of accusing eyes set her off faster than Romanoff reacts to a gunshot. Fury opened his mouth to speak but Italia cut him off. "Actually, if you're going to tell me anything, you can tell me what you really want from me, and why you didn't just take it from me. You can tell me why my father spent his life looking behind his shoulder, why I suddenly fear for his life."

"Don't come in her and make everything about you, Gage, we have problems bigger than your little qualms," Romanoff spat and everyone else started up again, only their arguments were more direct.

"Enough!" Bruce exclaimed above the ruckus. The group quieted, angry eyes flickering to his form. "What are we… are we a team? No, no, no, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos! We're a time bomb!" He vented. Italia stiffened, her fingers gripping the bench beside her. Everyone stiffened.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his..." Fury began.

"Back where? You rented my room."

"The cell was built..."

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried!... I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth... and the other guy spit it out! So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk!" He practically growled. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" He challenged.

Italia stepped forward slowly, her eyes watching Bruce's every movement. "Doctor Banner... put down the sceptre," Steve ordered. Bruce's eyes darted to his hand to see the sceptre firmly in his grip. A shrill beeping erupted in the room. Italia jumped and Bruce set the sceptre back down.

"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my little party trick after all," Bruce muttered, heading to the computer screen.

"It's…" Before Bruce could finish his sentence, the room exploded. Everybody was sent sprawling. Italia was sent flying, being closest to the explosion, colliding with Tony as he and Steve were pushed into the corridor. A strangled cry left Italia's lips as she hit the opposite wall in the hall, Steve landing beside her and Tony across the pair. Italia cried out louder when Steve's hand brushed her shoulder. She jerked away, her front colliding with Tony's again. Both men stared at her for a moment as she kept her eyes firmly closed, pulling herself out from under Tony and stumbling to a standing position.

Steve and Tony followed, helping each other out as they went, their eyes glued to Italia's shoulder. The long sleeved top she'd been wearing had been ripped on her shoulder, and the skin that was showing was a violent red, the more severe part of it a rich ruby. Italia was biting down on her fist to stifle the noises her throat was letting slip.

"Put on the suit," Steve uttered to Tony when they made eye contact, the pair stepping forward, each wrapping an arm around Italia's waist and the three staggered through the mess to get to Tony's suit. By the time they reached the holding area, Italia's whole body was trembling, her brilliant green eyes unfocused.

The pair set her down, her back leaning against a wall. She was angled in such a way the kept her left shoulder completely off the wall and her hands sat limply in her lap. Tony rushed to get his suit on before returning to Steve and Italia, his visor up. His face was scrunched up as he looked down at Italia's small frame. He never actually realised how small she was. The way she held herself made her looked bigger and physically stronger than what she actually seemed to be. Even her feet were small.

"C'mon, we have to go," Steve sighed as their comms unit continued to dish out orders and situations.

"We can't just leave her here!" Tony argued but Steve shook his head.

"Stark, she's in shock, the only way we can help her is getting this finished. She'll be safe here so long as no one notices her, or recognises her," Steve replied and, with one final glance at those glassy green eyes, Tony led the way out.

Italia was cold, the only heat her body was registering was the festering hot iron latched onto her shoulder. The conscious part of her mind fought to take back control of her body and the non-functioning section of her brain. She was swimming in her own fear. The green flickering in Bruce's eyes, the flash of terror in Tony's eyes, the searing pain as someone planted burning embers into the soft skin of her shoulder like poppy seeds.

The distant, but ever closer roaring seemed to ignite life in Italia again and she deftly crawled in the opposite direction, her elbows shaking as she went. Panic drove her to her feet and kept pushing her until she was sprinting from the holding area. Finally, when the noise settled and she was in a place that the only thing she heard, but didn't register, was the continuous siren, screeching throughout the entire invasion.

"One, 21 guns," Italia sang softly, a laugh bubbling from her lips as the lyrics passed through her head. That had been the most conscious thought she'd had throughout all the mess.

**I'm pretty proud of this chapter. I'd like to think I did pretty good. But that's up to you to decided, let me know a review please!**


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